Why Convenience Stores Must Address Ransomware and Other Cyberthreats

For most small businesses, the rapid increase in ransomware and similar cyberthreats has quickly outpaced their ability to address those threats. There are several reasons for this predicament, but two key elements tend to stand out.

Especially in the convenience space, retailers are adding more technologies and IoT devices to address ever-changing consumer behaviors. The sheer number of devices connected to the Internet has greatly broadened the attack surface and the potential points of vulnerability. As the technology landscape becomes more complex, so does the task of trying to protect your systems and data-not to mention your customers’ data.

A second formidable challenge is the ongoing workforce shortage that’s forcing businesses to determine how much IT work they can manage in-house and how many functions they might need to outsource.

These dual challenges make it increasingly important to think about cybersecurity from a more holistic perspective. However, there’s still a disconnect in understanding the threat and acting upon it. According to a BullGuard Survey, many small businesses in the US and UK are unprepared to handle the rising threat of advanced cyberattacks. In fact, 43% lack any type of cybersecurity defense plans, and 20% aren’t even using endpoint security protection.

But if you know the high risk involved, what would stop you from effectively preparing for a cyberattack? The most common obstacles are:

• Limited resources, in terms of budget and personnel
• A cybersecurity skills gap
• Low business prioritization

How to strengthen your security posture

Even if you face these same obstacles, it’s not inevitable that you have to become yet another cyberattack victim. Just like much larger businesses, you can take some relatively simple steps to strengthen your security posture:

1. Be proactive about understanding and avoiding threats
2. Prioritize threat prevention
3. Implement a threat detection and response strategy
4. Consider engaging with a managed services provider to supplement your efforts

Be proactive

If you can reduce the chances of a threat impacting your business, your risk factors also decrease. In contrast, if you fail to be proactive, the financial impact of a cyberattack can pose an existential threat to your business. Be realistic about how much you can do, and start with your employees.

The human factor is still the most common weak link in the cybersecurity chain, whether it’s a part-time employee clicking on a phishing email or an IT staffer who waits too long to apply a software patch for a well-known security vulnerability.

This is why relevant, ongoing security awareness training should be a standard part of your business process. Your employees are often the first line of defense for your business, so make sure they understand why cybersecurity is so vital to your business.

Prioritize threat prevention

One of the fastest ways to elevate your security posture is to implement strong prevention measures-such as endpoint protection-to stop threats before they can disrupt your business. Although the basic anti-virus and anti-malware tools that come preloaded onto your computers are a good first step, they aren’t nearly enough on their own.

Those types of tools aren’t fundamentally designed to stop today’s advanced cyberthreats. Instead, you should focus on prevention methodologies and technologies designed to stop a broader array of system exploits. If you plan to handle this work internally, you should be prepared to make additional investments in both cybersecurity staff and tools.

Implement a detection and response strategy

Prevention is a big piece of the security puzzle, but it doesn’t provide the visibility that can reveal larger issues and potential threats. That’s where detection and response tools come into play.

Because you can’t prevent every threat, it’s important to minimize the impact if an attack does hit your business. You need the tools and processes to detect threats and respond to them in real time. Modern tools that utilize machine learning and artificial intelligence are great for this task. But you also need to continuously monitor your systems with the right combination of automated tools and human analysis.

Consider engaging with a managed services provider

If all of this sounds overly complicated to you, you’re not alone. Keeping up with sophisticated cyberthreats requires having the tools and the experts that can keep up with cybercriminals and their array of advanced technologies. That requires finding, hiring, training, and retaining highly sought-after cybersecurity professionals-and continually investing in the latest state-of-the-art tools.

Unfortunately, most smaller businesses don’t have the budget for dedicated security experts and round-the-clock staffing. That’s precisely why an increasing number of convenience retailers have begun working with managed security services providers (MSSPs) to augment the capabilities of their own IT teams.

The fully managed services approach can do wonders for strengthening your security posture in a cost-effective manner, because it eliminates your hiring/training burden while giving you 24/7/365 coverage from a team of experienced cybersecurity analysts.

Best of all, you don’t personally need to become a cybersecurity expert. By bringing in an experienced partner to handle cybersecurity, you can free up your team to focus on what they do best-delivering an outstanding convenience experience that helps your business grow.

To learn more about managed cybersecurity services for convenience retailers, check out PDI’s Security Solutions overview.